Tag: The Fighting Yank (Page 13 of 18)

With the Burpeethon in progress YHC decided a little station work was in order at TFY this fine fall morning as we gathered in the gloom of early fall. Looked a little like this:

Station 1: COP

SSH X 20

2 burpees OYO

IW X20

4 burpees OYO

Copperhead squats

6 burpees OYO

Merkins X 15

8 burpees OYO

Mount climbers X 20

10 burpees OYO

Mosey to station 2

Station 2: Corner of Knowledge

One legged dips, Dirkins, Squats 3X repeats 10, 15, 20 each with 15 SSH after each round.

Mosey to station 3

Station 3 : Field of Dreams

Slalom Indian bear crawls to the end of the field (Pax in plank)

SSH X 20

Slalom mosey back (Pax in plank)

Mosey to station 4

Station 4: Stairway to Heaven.

Partner up

P1: Run from the park yard up the steps to the sidewalk, drop and do 10 hand release merkins

P2: LBCs until P1 returns. Rinse and repeat

Repeat 3 times

SSH X 20

Mosey to Station 5

Fountain for a little circle work and Mary

Each Pax runs all the way around the circle and up to the Yank and does 5 burpees.

Included but not limited to: Mountain Climbers, Monkey humpers, Quad stretch, LBCs, and others.

NMM: Great work by the Pax today. Great day to be out! Welcome FNG Cherub. Be a great addition. Has a great life story being one of the “boat people” who’s family fled Vietnam in the later ’70s for a better life here. High risk proposition. One in four survived that option. Spent two years in a refugee camp in Malaysia before getting the green light to come here. Think about it! We actually do things right here no matter what the media wants to say. Cherub is a testament to that truth. The pledge meant a little more today than it usually does. Glad to have you aboard Cherub!

With it being early fall I decided to try a football-themed beatdown.  Sorta hard to do being that I knew we probably wouldn’t be running routes and tackling.  Although, doing an Oklahoma Drill definitely crossed my mind.

We had one FNG who apparently Keash knew, but had no clue who this Queeche guy was.  Full disclaimer was given for his benefit, letting him know I’m an idiot.

Warmup:

• SSHs
• Don Quixotes
• Goofballs

Pledge

We then moseyed up to the football field for a double quarter pounder with cheese.  It was supposed to be done on a football field, so I felt it went along with my football theme, right??? It went something like this – run to the 25 yard line and do 25 merkins.  Run backwards to the end line.  Run to the 50 yard line and do 50 squats.  Run backwards to the end line.  Run to the 75 yard line and do 75 mountain climbers.  Run backwards to the end line.  Run to the other end line and do 100 SSHs.  Run backwards to the end line.  Plank for the six.

Easy mosey around the track.

Then the double portion of the double quarter pounder with cheese.  It included 25 jump squats, 50 LBCs, 75 Moroccan Nightclubs and 10 burpees.

Easy mosey around the track.

We then did the Panther Pounder.  We would jog in place, but would mix in some high knees and butt kickers too, and YHC would call out either burpee or merkin and we would drop and do whatever was called out.  During this odd version of Simon Says we found there really wasn’t much of a  difference between the two when starting in an upright position.

We moseyed down to the pavilion for some Corewood.  60 seconds AMRAP with 30 seconds rest in between each one.  Here are the exercises I can remember:

• Crunchy Frogs
• American Hammers
• Protractors
• Flutter Kicks

We headed down the hill for a Triple Nickel.  Monkey Humpers at the bottom and WWII sit-ups at the top.

We had 3 minutes left and I tried to call it, but the pax wouldn’t have it and we did three rounds of Mary.  Broke called for dips, Kuiche called for Freddie Mercurys and Sargento called something else.  I don’t remember what.

During the workout I mixed in some football trivia.  When I let the pax know I planned on doing that Keeshe started yelling out random former Buffalo Bills (“oh oh Jim Kelly, uhh Thurman Thomas, uhh Don Beebe…”).  None of them were correct.  We learned Sargento is a walking talking football encyclopedia and at times I was having to Omaha mid-question because he was answering before I could finish.  Next time, Sargento, my questions won’t be so easy!

Prayer Requests

Announcements

Name-o-rama

COT

Thanks for the push today, guys!  Go Bills!

Sargento had thrown out the challenge a few times in past workouts…and I felt it was time for the real SLIM SHADY to please STAND UP…So, I did my homiework throughout the week to come up with a solid workout filled with some catchy F3 exercises – a remix that would make even Eminem proud. Here’s the low-down:

We MOSEY from the Fighting Yank meeting spot to a nearby lot for

THE WARMUP – Happy Jacks, Annies, Goofball, Shady Moroccan Night Club (Leg Lifted while do exercise), Slow-mo-LBCs…ALL In cadence sort of ( Definitely lived up to the Shady of my name) The CHATTER was definitely high as my cadence was a little less than perfect. Sargento did warn me earlier in the week but hey, GO BIG OR STAY HOME! So, with the giggles going, we MOSEY to the tennis courts near Davis Park

THE THANG – I lived on the court when I was young, playing in constant tournaments and playing all throughout high school. So, back to the courts we went, covering the court with reps of 15, 30, 40 to mirror tennis scoring.

15 burpees from baseline then run to service line, Al Gores from service line then bear crawl back to baseline. 30 Gorilla Humpers from baseline then run to net, mountain climbers with bear crawl back…Repeat with 40 Captain Morgans, 40 Big Boy Sit-ups for full court…Then, in true SHADY fashion = full sprint around 3 tennis courts, basketball D style slide run around 3 courts…To make sure no one including myself didn’t MERLOT, through in some count offs. Then, went back to it with the same exercises as above with baseline, service line, net, full court…Then followed this with some line to line suicides in teams of 5. We MOSEY back to the school wall for the final SET to WIN THE MATCH (Man, how cheesy but let’s go with it)  Now, it sounded better and looked better on paper but I realized quickly from some more wise PAX that what we were about to do was a bit much for 15 PAX. Any ways, we went with it at first. All on the wall, in wall sits while each ran down the hill across the field to the workout station of Stowe Park and when each return, they were to do 10 Werkins. From there, I threw in a couple audibles to get us back without any going down for the count. We all made it back to the YANK and Pizza Man called in the well deserved 22 Merkins for all those military that have and are serving our country.

So there it is – VQ in the books…It was an honor gents…SLIM SHADY OUT!

With a few minutes till start I got a text that a couple of FNGs that Edison had EH’d were running behind so with another FNG already there and time to go we started. Disclaimer for our first FNG that Tool Time has been EH’ing. I’m an idiot (some of the PAX reminded me), These are recommended exercises, go at your own pace. Lets start.

SSH x 20

Cherry Pickers x 15

Moroccan Nightclubs till the new PAX arrive.

Disclaimer again for the new PAX

5 Burpees OYO

Mosey to the stop light at the corner of Myrtle and Main. We will start there with an exercise and then mosey to the next corner at Myrtle and Central perform another exercise, then go to Central and Woodrow for another stop and then on to the corner of Woodrow and Main and then back to the start. Rinse and repeat. This is a 1 mile loop

Corner 1

Merkin

Corner 2

LBC

Corner 3

Squat

Corner 4

Toy Soldiers

Round 1 is 10 reps

Round 2 is 20 reps

With plans of a 3rd round we omaha’d so that everyone could stay together. Mosey back to the front of the school. I asked everyone for their favorite exercise. We performed 6 exercises around the front loop for 20 minutes. Do each exercise 20 times single count. I believe we got about three maybe four trips in.

Wee Wee said pull ups but he changed to Merkins since we had no pull up bar.

Slim Shady says Mountain Climbers

Tool Time gave us oblique V-ups

Edison gave us Flutter Kicks

The Q gave everyone Monkey Humpers with your backside to the road and Dips

With time running out we moseyed back only stopping first at the wall behind the school for some Hip Slappers only the Q calls when to slap your hip.

Mosey on back with a minute to spare. Good job everyone. Way to push!!

Pledge:

Announcements:

Christmas town 5k. Get signed up and lets support Speed For Need. When you sign up let Tool Time know. Remember there are a limited number of slots for this event. If you can not run or walk in the event then plan on helping at the tent. Please try to come out and help support each other as well as the community.

Prayer Request:

There are many spoken and unspoken request. Please keep each other in your prayers. Remember God is in control!! If you need to talk I’m always available and I’m sure there are other PAX willing to lend an ear.

Praise report:

SPEED FOR NEED. I am thankful that God has given our PAX a new avenue in which to reach out and spread his love in our community.

Thank you brothers for your support. Till next time!!

SUMMARY

13 men (12 country bumpkins from Gastonia and a lone stray Mongol), showed up at The F’in Yank to give the @F3SpeedForNeed racing a chair a final tuneup before the Inaugural Race on 7/4.  Thankfully, we did not break the chariot before the race, although we did manage to perfect a very technical move called the ‘Reverse Rickshaw’ which is when a white guy (Tooltime) pushes, while an Asian (JRR Tolkien The Mongol) rides.  No monetary gratuity was given, but plenty of tips were.  ~3 miles were covered and hopefully ‘dem abs will be sore tomorrow from Bruce Lee’s Dragon Flags, or whatever we did: Dragon Flag Proper Form

THANG

Purpose for today’s workout was to give everyone a chance to drive the racing chair on a fast stretch for some speed, and maybe with some resistance up a hill, to get some familiarity with how it feels to be pushing 120lbs (40lb chair + 80lbs of weight… or a LOT more, if a brother was sitting in it).  All PAX swtiched-off pushing racing chariot throughout the 60min workout.

• Mosey towards town, stopping in the surface behind the rusting train-car for some warmups SSH, IW and 31-merkin ladder (5reg, 5wide, 5diamond, 5right-offset, 5left-offset, 3right-leg-up, 3-left-leg-up)
• Mosey to brick wall of a local building for some people’s chair with air presses while alternating raising legs.  Then do three sets of hip-slappers on the wall, 10 each side. 
• Mosey across train tracks to straightaway. Series of progression sprints w/ chariots to the next street. Plank for 6, then 10 CDD. Mosey down Hawthorne Street hill, progression run back up hill, plank, 10 CDD. Repeato.  PAX alternated pushing SFN chariot (weighted with person or with 80lbs of weights) and running forwards and backwards up the hill, at times with sandbags.  We repeated the hill repeats a handful of times until everyone got a chance to feel the suck.
• Back to Stowe park by the pavillion with picnic tables.  Each PAX completes 2 rounds of the following:
  • At pull-up bars, perform 1 pull-up followed by 1 toe-to-bar…. 5X
  • 10 single leg squats on picnic bench each leg, switch legs. Change to single leg step ups if needed.
• Run 2 laps around the inside of Stowe Park, regroup at the 6 and mosey to the gazebo.
• At the gazebo, 2 sets or 3 sets? #delirious of Bruce Lee’s Dragon Flag Situps before one more lap around the part to get 3miles for your Strava mileage.  Regroup at the Flag for the Pledge of Allegiance, group selfie with #SFN racing chair, YHC with takeout and FINITO!

MOLESKINE

First of all, words can’t express how grateful F3 Nation is to have such a supportive and giving group of men in Gastonia for SPEEDFORNEED.  You have rallied around crazy leaders like Tooltime and myself and really shown a commitment to the cause as if it was your very own… and guess what #SFN IS YOUR OWN!  Your small region carries a LOUD voice, and embodies what F3 is all about, whether it’s the Nomads traveling to different regions to post (even if they picked my day to Q!), signing up to be part of The Inaugural SFN Race, donating your time and money, and just spreading the news with others #giveitaway. Looking forward to posting with you men again, participating in your #SFN McAdenville Christmastown 5k Race, supporting your causes, and growing F3 Nation with you.

Anyway, couple of musings… before YHC hits the sack for an early 12miler tomorrow morning #NYCmarathontraining.  Poor Wee-wee was the only one not able to do pull-up muscle ups at the pull-up bars, keep on trying brother… you’ll get there. The Mayor put up strong performance, flying down the hill and needing to apply the leash on the chariot.  On the way up the hill, dude kept on pushing himself, even carrying the sandbags.  He’s one of those dudes you’ll look back in the months and years to come, with a serious story to tell others.  Yesterday me and my boy were shooting BB guns in the backyard and one got away from us. Then I saw Tooltime’s head and got all nervous that’s where the pellet had landed, but it wasn’t.  Gotta say, you men in Gastonia are very lucky to have this guy in your region.  You already know he’s a great guy and leader, but he has been truly a great support and advocate for SPEEDFORNEED , getting the word out, and offering all of his time to support a crazy Mongol he’s never met before… until today!  Great work by everyone out there today, hope some of the exercises were things you don’t normally do and can add to your arsenal of pain.  Until next time… 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• You have until 7/3 to sign up for the SPEEDFORNEED Inaugural Race, the American 4 miler Race in Dilworth which starts at 0730 and we will be crossing the finish line at just after 0800. We will be running as a group behind Owen, Nash’s (METRO) 14yr old 2.0 (muscular dystrophy). There is NO race day signups, so do it now. Hang out with the family, and cheer on Owen and support F3. There are about 50 registered runners, and there will be closer to 100 F3 spectators there at our tent.  Be a part of the very first #SFN race and the start of a legacy: Preblast and Signup Links
• SIGN UP for the McAdenville 5k Race which F3-Gastonia is hosting for SPEEDFORNEED. It should be quite a memorable evening under the Christmas nights and YHC hopes you will be a part of it. See ToolTime for details, and check out the Christmastown 5K PREBLAST LINK.  * This race is capped for # of racers so you need to sign up quickly*
• YHC was fortunate enough to participate on the Nantan Podcast Friday to talk about SPEEDFORNEED and the motivation behind it. It’s not nearly as eloquent as others which are on there, but there are a few tidbits of #TRUTH sprinkled in. Have a listen if you are interested, or just listen to some of the other podcasts by other #HIM in F3 Nation when you’re driving home:  https://soundcloud.com/f3nantan/f3speedforneed
• Looking for a SPEEDFORNEED shirt? Click on the SFN Shirt Video and let me know if you want one… Order #1 basically SOLD OUT faster than a Mariah Carey concert, but more are on the way and some sold at the race. Msg me.

• Prayers for Solomon’s step-daughter for a speedy recovery.

Have a great weekend and 4th of July men.  Grateful for all of you, and keep pushing forward in all 3 F’s.

SYITG ~ JRR Tolkien

18 manly men showed for YHC’s first Q in a couple of weeks and I aimed to fill their need for a good ole beatdown. There was plenty of mumble chatter to go around between Tool Time and his namer High Roller, along with many of the regular characters, 2 FNG’s and a 2.0. Let’s get it on!

Mosey across the street for a little more room, a short disclaimer about how I’m not a professional, go at your own pace, modify as needed, etc.

Warm-up:

Goof Balls (just for Tool Time) x15 IC

Don Quixotes (also just for Tool Time!) x15 IC

Dying Cockroaches x15IC

Moroccan Nightclubs x20IC

Monkey Humpers x15IC

Back across the street for the pledge. A special surprise before we headed off was waiting in YHC’s trunk, bricks for all! Mosey through the park, around the water fountain a couple of times and then up to the track behind the middle school for the main event.

The Thang – the Deck of Death (mosey edition)

We wouldn’t have time for anything else during our workout so we had to get moving. For each card drawn from a normal deck of cards (2 jokers included) the PAX will perform the number of reps shown on the card for the exercise that pertains to that specific suit. Also, after each card the PAX would mosey 1/6th around the track for the next exercise.

Spades – Brickens

Hearts – LCBs

Clubs – Squat Press with bricks

Diamonds – Arm Raises with bricks

The workout started off innocently enough, pick a card, do some reps, so on and so forth. Pretty soon the sweat started to fall. The weird thing was that it took about half of the deck before we came across the first diamond. That just meant they piled up at the end. YHC also changed it up so that on each ace, we ran a full lap around the track. Fun! At least for me and Quiche.

The fun of this routine is always has the men moving and it kept us together for some good fellowship and mumble chatter. We had to push at the end to finish up the deck before time was us but we made it. Way to hang in there guys, we completed over 3 miles today! Mosey back to the playground.

Prayer requests, announcements and namorama.

Moleskin: Today marked the one year anniversary of the Fighting Yank AO here in Belmont. Thanks to our leadership for agreeing to let this thing get started up! From the very beginning we’ve had really strong and faithful attendance that continues to grow. I would bet that we’ve had more FNG’s at our AO than any other her in the Gashouse region. That may be a stat for the weasel shaker to look into. Keep EH’ing all the men you talk to, even if you don’t know them. Heck, even hollering at someone running down the road by themselves can work, right Dr. Seuss, Tiny Tank, Norwood and Gilligan?!? It’s been a pleasure to be your site Q for the last year, it’s been a blast. Thanks for to all who’ve led and posted, without you there wouldn’t be F3 in Belmont. Let’s keep growing this thing for the sake of all those sad clowns out there in fartsack land! Love you men!

AYE!!!

Ten pax showed up in the gloom for another Norwood beatdown.  There was one re-born FNG who had only posted once it was a year ago.  So a disclaimer was given letting him know I’m an idiot.

Warmup:
– 15 SSH IC
– 15 goofballs IC
– 15 imperial walkers IC

We moseyed up to the track behind Belmont Middle.  I wanted to do a workout to help prep everyone for the Belmont 5k next weekend.  So I had a variation of mile repeats.  We would do four laps, on each lap we would accelerate on the home straight, jog both turns and then do a different exercise on the back straight.  Lap one we did crab walks, lap two was lunges, lap three was bear crawls and lap four was zombie walk.  Plank for the six.

After the first mile we had a count off.  Still had the same ten we started with.  Then we had five exercise to do over the next five minutes.  If you finish the reps early, you had a break until the start of the next minute.  The exercises were:

• 10 burpees
• 20 monkey humpers
• 10 merkins
• 20 jump squats
• 10 CDDs

Then another mile repeat with the same exercises.  Another count off and we still had all ten.  Then we did another five minute segment with the following exercises:

• 20 single leg squats – left leg
• 10 derkins
• 20 single leg squats – right leg
• 10 werkins
• 20 squats

Keash and Shad Rap did their best siamese twin impression during the single leg squats.

We didn’t have enough time to complete another mile, so we just did two laps with the pax picking the exercise of their choice on the back straight.

Then came my favorite part of the beatdown.  I knew my good friend Tool Time would be there so I wanted to come up with a unique name for this part of my workout.  I came up with an original name of for this portion – Core Time with Norwood.  Queash quickly renamed it to Corewood.  We did the following exercises for 60 seconds AMRAP with 30 seconds of rest in between:

• Crunch frogs
• Protractors – 180 degrees was the most common
• LBCs
• WW II situps
• Pretzel crunch
• Flutter kicks
• American hammers

Tool Time said you needed to go all the way down on the american hammers.  Wheezy pointed out that is something Tool Time seems to be good at.

We then moseyed back to the flag for the pledge.  I was a little disappointed we ran out of time and didn’t get to do the wind sprint portion to simulate the end of the 5k.  Maybe next Q.

Announcements:

– Belmont 5k next weekend
– Tuna 200 in October
– Speed For Need donations

Prayer requests:

• Our brothers doing the MudRun

COT

Thanks guys…had a blast like always!

With the Nomads going out of state for a workout, it left The Fighting Yank Q-less on Saturday.  After dozens of phone calls, texts and emails from Sargento begging me to Q this weekend, I finally relented and agreed.

YHC wasn’t sure what I was going to do for a beatdown.  The night before, while celebrating Cinco de Mayo at Tiny Tank’s house, I revealed my rough draft for my Q.  Tiny Tank basically asked if I was insane and Wheezy said something just came up and he wasn’t going to be able to make it the next morning, as he cracked another cold adult beverage.  So I decided to make a couple of adjustments.

As the men were arriving at The Fighting Yank, Keesh asked if I planned on dabbing this morning.  YHC told him there were no burpees on my weinke.  Quish seemed happy and said he wasn’t going to grab his gloves then.

When 0700 hit, there was a quick disclaimer about me being an idiot and then we moseyed.  No time for a warmup, or at least I wasn’t sure if there would be time, so I opted against it.

We moseyed to the hill by Hawthorne for a triple nickel (the rough draft was 11s). We did lunges at the bottom and monkey humpers at the top.

We then moseyed to the front of Belmont Middle.  On the mosey Tiny Tank took off ahead saying he had to empty his tiny tank.  Don’t worry, he assured us he washed his hands.

We got to the front of the school and when I pulled out my weinke I saw something I didn’t realize was there.  Which isn’t the first time this has happened to me.  But, this time at least it was just burpees.  Edison essentially called me a liar.  And I couldn’t disagree with him.  I am a liar.

We did station work in a figure 8 formation around the sidewalks.  10 merkins, 10 werkins, 10 derkins, 10 moroccan nightclubs, 10 dips, 10 werkins, 10 derkins and 5 burpees.  Rinse and repeat two more times.  Then we began a fellowship mosey to the back of the school.

Since we were moving along quicker than I anticipated and I opted against a warmup, YHC threw in an impromptu wall sit on the back of the school.  There was some mumble chatter about us already doing the legs portion of the workout.  YHC quickly reminded everyone that Sargento hand picked me, not them, to Q this beatdown.

We continued the rest of our mosey to the track for an ab version of Dora 1-2-3.  100 leg throws, 200 LBCs and 300 flutter kicks.  We partnered-up.  Since we had an odd number, Top Hat took one for the team and opted to go it alone.  So that everyone finished together, a few of the Pax did an extra 50 flutter kicks OYO.

Slow mosey back to where we started.  During which Qeesh was sure to show YHC his hands and claim the calluses from the burpees could put him out of work for days and it was my fault because YHC told him he wouldn’t need gloves.

Pledge.

Announcements:
– Mudrun in a couple of weeks.
– Tuna 200 in October. Seven have signed up, looking for at least five more and the possibility of another team.

Prayer Requests:
– All of the pax who haven’t posted in a while and those that are on IR.

Top Hat lead us in a COT.

Thanks guys, I had a blast leading!